Learning how to write Hanzi

komyg

July 31, 2008, 01:33 PM posted in General Discussion

Hi all, could anyone recommend me a book that teaches how to read and write Hanzi?

Thanks,

Komyg

William McNaughton's Reading & Writing Chinese is the standard recommendation - really helpful. Both simplified and traditional character editions are available. (1000+ characters with concise explanations, 3000+ altogether)

Learn to Write Chinese Characters (Yale Language Series) isn't bad either, but it focuses more on theoretical aspects, so one of it's drawback is that it cannot be used as a basic dictionary, unlike the abovementioned.

What's in a Chinese Character by Tan Huay Peng is ok as well, though too elementary for my taste (contains somewhat over 350 characters). Many mnemonics.

chercherry

July 31, 2008, 08:33 PM

I hope chinesepod would have a segment on basic chinese character writing. The step by step, number by number, character writing. Please include it. Thanks

shenhe

July 31, 2008, 09:07 PM

What I'd really love to see, too, is an actual lesson on writing correction. Learning how to say "You twat, you got the stroke order wrong", "Does the left falling stroke come before this slant to the right?" "The radicals this zi consists of are..." "I hope I'll one day be able to write more than X characters" etc. would be brilliant. Wishful thinking?

EnhuiW

July 31, 2008, 10:01 PM

You can find animated .gifs of most simplified hanzi here: http://lost-theory.org/ocrat/chargif/

Traditional characters are here: http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/ealc/chinese/characters.html This is designed for part of a course at USC, so the characters are in a specific order and it isn't searchable. You can download the package (it's all in html, so I think that you have to unzip it into your C:\Documents and Settings\(your username)\My Documents directory to get the links to work).

Also, I love NJStar's Chinese Pen application: http://www.njstar.com/cms/njstar-chinese-pen.I use it sometimes to input hanzi into applications like Word and browser windows. It even works when I don't have the Chinese IME turned on.

daynah

July 31, 2008, 10:50 PM

Stroke order can also be found at nciku.com. Just look up the character (you can "draw" it in the wrong order in their character recognition software and it'll pull up the character just fine) and scroll down for the animation.

Remembering the general order is the most important thing.

I think it's also important to realize that we have a "stroke order" in English, too! The difference between writing and drawing is that in writing you write the letter or character the same way each and every time. When you draw, all that matters is the end product no matter how you get to it.

Do you remember in kindergarden when you were learning how to write your lower case "a?" It started sorta at the top, went around down and to the left and back up to make a circle, and then fell back down but to the right to make a tail. You always write your "a"s this way. But some people don't. And the people who don't write their "a"s the same way each and every time. Some people write their "o"s starting from the bottom of the circle instead of the top, but they write it that way every single time.

The consistancy helps you with speed (and with characters, it helps with memorization). Certainly, to a native, they will be able to tell in certain characters that you did it in the "wrong" order (like how obvious upside down "o"s are). But, if they can read it, and if you are able to write quickly, is it really that big of a deal? You're not doing calligraphy, you're writing a check.

That's my view on it. Learn the basics, they're there to help you learn the characters and pick up speed. But don't get so caught up in the details that they hinder you.